‘Wolfman’ drips with blood and emotion

Michael HuckabyMovie reviews

Published
6:00 pm CST, Wednesday, February 17, 2010

“The Wolfman” is the kind of film that produces howls of lupine delight from audiences and prods herds of wooly-headed naysayers to chew their cuds and baa sheepishly at the moon. A remake true to the spirit of the 1941 classic, the Gothic movie was, as reported, beset with problems - changing directors, composers and editors. But so were “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind,” two 1939 classics completed by the very same replacement director.

Masterfully set in 1891, this is the tragic story of three conflicted people. Oscar winners Sir Anthony Hopkins and Benicio Del Toro play Sir John Talbot and his estranged son Lawrence. While Emily Blunt, the title star of “The Young Victoria” (in current release), is the ethereal Gwen Conliffe, the fiancé of Lawrence’s brother. And special effects makeup wizard Rick Baker, the proud recipient of six Oscars, artfully complements the computer imaging in this tale that drips with both blood and emotion.

A Shakespearian actor playing “Hamlet” in Victorian London, Lawrence returns to his ancestral estate of Blackmoor when Gwen writes, informing him his brother Ben (Simon Merrell) has gone missing. As a schoolboy, Lawrence was confined to an asylum after a werewolf dined on his mother. Upon release, an American aunt raised him, so this is his first visit to Blackmoor in more than two decades.

What he finds is one of the most splendid country homes in England in slovenly disrepair and choked with cobwebs. Gwen is grateful at his appearance, Sir Anthony appears amused and turbaned manservant Singh (Art Malik) is welcoming.

Alas, Ben’s half-devoured remains are soon found on the moors, the obvious prey of a bloodthirsty werewolf. The question never answered is why Ben and Gwen, who runs a trendy London furniture shop, would spend time at Sir John’s gloomy, inhospitable estate. Nor is an explanation offered for the sudden reappearance of a werewolf after more than 20 years.

Malicious Scotland Yard Inspector Aberline (Hugo Weaving) appears, bent on proving that Lawrence murdered his own brother. But the wizened Gypsy Maleva (Geraldine Chapman) knows better but only hints at the truth.

Inevitably, Lawrence is bitten and Gwen nurses him back to health. Even though he is now a full-fledged werewolf, the variety that walks upright, Gwen comes to love him. Arrested by Aberline, the stricken actor is confined to a familiar London insane asylum. Anxious to observe a lycanthropic transformation, academic doctors and Aberline shackle him to a chair at dusk on the evening of the next full moon.

After a grisly escape highlighted by feral bounding over London rooftops, Gwen helps the afflicted Lawrence back to Blackmoor. Trailed doggedly by Aberline, Lawrence learns the truth about the Talbot curse and confronts the dastardly werewolf responsible for so much family misery.

Though sedate, one memorable scene occurs in a hidden glen overlooking a romantic waterfall. The most telling comes when Maleva asks Gwen whether she will condemn Lawrence or set him free.

More than 30,000 Europeans were condemned for being werewolves over the course of a single century. The splendid finale includes torch-carrying villagers armed with silver bullets and a snarling death battle between two werewolves.